813 - Recolor EP (Activia Benz, Out late Feb)

Day-glo hip-hop / rave crossover stuff from Slugabed's label, due to drop some time in late February. Enjoyably hyperactive and luminous.

Shallowrave, Show 7 Year Zero

 

More long-playing goodness from ourselves over at Radiomagnetic.com, kicking off the New Year with a compilation of the usual eclectic sounds, from dark and minimal dronescapes, to hip-hop and metal, with the occasional pop screamer as well. 

Tracklist

1. Nailbomb – Shit Piñata – Roadrunner
2. Church of When the Shit Hits the Fan – The Laugh Track – Black Lantern
3. Wu Tang Clan & Kool G Rap – Rivers Of Blood (The Man With The Iron Fists Soundtrack) – Soul Temple
4. Shelter Point – Braille – Hot Flush
5. Volor Flex – About You – Apollo Records
6. WIFE – Bodies – Left Blank
7. Echologist – Buzz Factory (Pole Dub mix) – Echochord
8. gh?l – Untitled – Unreleased
9. Demdike Stare – Of Decaying Shadows – Modern Love
10. Faith No More – I Started A Joke – Polydor
11. Piemont – Floating Oil (Fred Sierra Remix)  JETT Records
12. gh?l – Kepler – Unreleased
13. Buck 65 – Blood of a Young Wolf – WEA
14. Boz Skags – The Lowdown – Columbia
15. Len – Steal My Sunshine – Work
16. The Militia – Electrolux – Ram Records
17. Geoff Before Dishonour – Cro Magnon – Little Rock Records
18. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Swamp Snake – Vertigo
19. Propaghandi – Apparently I’m a PC Fascist(because I care about human and non human animals) – Fat Wreck
20. YuTaNi ft. Zayn – Will U Be Mine – soundcloud.com/connor-reid
21. BLK SMK – The Humbling Part Two – www.flurex.org
22. Cruffy – Make Me Feel Good (88bpm Mix) - www.phuturelabs.com
23. CoMa – Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night – coma-noise.bandcamp.com
24. Small Black ft. Heems – Two Rivers – soundcloud.com/small-black
25. Lakutis – Death Shark – msihkanyc.bandcamp.com
26. Shisa – Melt – soundcloud.com/perris
27. Das Racist – I Don’t Want To Deal With Those Monsters – dasracist.net
28. Loki – Omnilash – soundcloud.com/volitionglasgow
29. p.WRECKS – Faux Forest – pwrecksshit.bandcamp.com
30. BEAK> – Hatton – beak.bandcamp.com  

 

Listen here. 

Soundcloud upload coming soon.

Our apologies for the delay, normal service will be resumed in January.

TEXTURE - HE▲VY D▲ZE II MIXTAPE

A free-to-download mix from Shallow Rave's TEXTURE, to promote the upcoming Dark Electronic night HE▲VY D▲ZE II at Nice 'N' Sleazy, Glasgow, on 29 August. Event details here.

From the bass-weight hip-hop of Aparition, Blam Lord and Spz Chaote and Death Grips to the widescreen electronic pop of VS//YOUTHCLUB and Com Truise; from the dark electropunk of DARK MOTHER to the 90s synth-stabs and breakbeat goodness of Rachel Haircut; and from the trap beats of heRobust to the pounding proto-EBM of ▲NDR/\S, this is the sound of HEAVY DAZE.

Tracklist:

Cadence Weapon X Grimes - 88
Ceremonial Dagger - Unphazed
Lorn - Weigh Me Down
Ghosts - Sniper Wolf
Rachel Haircut - Make U Move
VS//YOUTHCLUB - 10245
Com Truise - Brokendate
Liars - A Ring On Every Finger
BL▲CK CEILING - Gone
DARK MOTHER - Devastator Did
▲NDR/\S - INVINCIBLE
Three 6 Mafia - Who Run It (Busted by heRobust)
Aparition X Blam Lord X Spz Chaote - 8-Bit Sorcery
Death Grips - Get Got
Ritualz - Alien
Ghosts - I Walk Alone

texture.bandcamp.com // www.blacklanternmusic.com // auralsects.bandcamp.com // www.facebook.com/HeavyDaze // www.shallowrave.com // www.facebook.com/NETVERK

HECTOR BIZERK - DRUMS. RAP. YES.

Stripped-down Scottish rap duo Hector Bizerk have put their debut album DRUMS. RAP. YES. up for stream on Soundcloud today - the album will be available via iTunes next week. It's a feverishly intense, densely literate take on Scottish hip-hop, as drummer Audrey Tait flexes and batters her way through complex polyrhythms and stop-start time changes, while rapper Louie (whose excellent solo album The Discernible Truth is also well worth checking out) constructs intelligent, considered rhymes with technical precision and fevered enthusiasm. It's a terrifically exciting debut, and is sure to set the Scottish hip-hop scene, and the musical landscape in general, on fire. We're planning on getting Hector Bizerk in for a chat on an upcoming Shallow Rave show, so stay tuned to the blog for news. Read Texture's interview with Hector Bizerk over at The Skinny.

TEXTURE - NEUROLEPTICA

Texture is 1/3 of Shallow Rave's current radio team, and the co-founder of boutique netlabel Black Lantern Music and spoken word noiseniks Chemical Poets. His three EPs, released on Black Lantern between 2009 and 2011, have been collected and lovingly remastered by fellow Black Lantern producer (and next Shallow Rave show's special guest!) Asthmatic Astronaut, along with two new tracks, and remixes by AA, hip-hop-blues fusionista Mild Maynyrd, THEFT//OBJECTIVE aka rapper/producer p.WRECKS, and dark electronic star I††. NEUROLEPTICA is available as a limited edition CDR with deluxe, foldout artwork by D. Miranda Pole, hand numbered and signed by Texture. 



Texture has not one but two launch gigs coming up in Glasgow - next week he plays the Black Lantern Showcase at New Life Glasgow, in Bar Bloc, from 11pm on June 30th. There are live performances from Texture, Asthmatic Asttronaut, and firebrand rapper Tickle, plus a DJ set from Monkeytribe.

The second is a soundclash between punk and hip-hop, as Texture plays live alongside Roscoe Variant & The Gantin' Schriechs, Giro Babies and Hordes of Unstoppable Skeletons. That's at The Art School on July 20th, from 8pm.

The Shallow Rave Show - 22nd March 2012

Shallow Rave's radio team returns! After last month's triumphant guest mix from TEXTBEAK, which garnered in excess of 1500 listens, hosts Liam, Boag and Bram (aka Black Lantern's Texture) are back to present their selection of the finest cuts in experimental and electronic music, with exclusives, classics and red-hot mixes.

You can download and stream below. Show A features some chat from the presenters about their selections, while Show B has just the music, nothing else. We'll be back very soon with Show 004, when we'll have some exciting news about the show, and some very special guests, including a guest mix from dark electronic / hip-hop wunderkind BL▲CK CEILING.



Playlist for Shallow Rave 003:

Voltergeist - 69 Psalmpled [ soundcloud.com/microrave-records ]
Demdike Stare - Filtered Through Prejudice   (Tryptych) [ modern-love.co.uk ]
GZA - Publicity   (Beneath The Surface) [ MCA Records ]
Byetone - Golden Elegy (Symeta) [ raster-noton.net ]
Randomer - Get Yourself Together   (HEK015) [ hemlockrecordings.co.uk ]
The Roots - Thirsty   (Phrenology) [ MCA Records ]
Silent Servant - Untitled Regis Edit (Sandwell District) [ Sandwell District ]
Solomun - He Is Watching You  (Something  We All Adore) [ wearesupernature.com ]
FiNiGHT - Neverglades (Icepunk Compilation) [ auralsects.bandcamp.com ]
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica (Replica) [ Mexican Summer / Software ]
oOoOO - No Way Back ft. Butterclock [ soundcloud.com/ooooosounds ]
Roly Porter - Rossack - [ subtextrecordings.net ]
Unknown Artist - Untitled - [ soundcloud.com/kid-ritalin ]
Sigha - How To Disappear - [ hotflushrecordings.com ]
Ben Klock - Static Test - [ ostgut.de/label ]
Sigha - Where I Go to Forget - [ hotflushrecordings.com ]
Northern Structures - Plus Minus - [ sonicgroove.com ]
Claro Intelecto - Voyeurism - [ delsinrecords.com ]
Ricardo Villalobos - Easy Lee (LetKolben Remix) [ soundcloud.com/letkolben ]
Model 500 - The Messenger [ randsrecords.greedbag.com ]
Soft Riot - Another Drone In Your Head [ tundradub.bandcamp.com ]
Ingen - TRYC9 [ soundcloud.com/ingen ]
Micoland - Awareness Spectrum Narcotic (Pirate Radio Astronomy) [ dead-channel.com ]
Louie - Oddacity ft. Solareye (The Discernible Truth) [ louiedeadlife.bandcamp.com ]

Profisee - Diggin' In The Crates

Profisee is one of the most important people in the Edinburgh and Scottish hip-hop scenes: a founder member of the legendary Scotland Yard Emcees, over the years he has worked with big-name producers such as Starkey and Hexstatic, and was the vocal half of epic electro-bass duo Great Ezcape.

Whether dropping a guest verse, producing his own beats with partner M as Cloak X Dagger, or collaborating with local Edinburgh heads like Nasty P or Yush2K, or in new collabs with producers such as Dam Mantle, the legendary 'weatherman' has an incredible command of words, dropping deep philosophy and prescient politics with a flare and style all his own. Live, he's an old-school performer, fiixated on making a crowd move, always full of energy.

Prof's just dropped a set of old, rare and lost tracks on his Soundcloud, as a crowd-hyper for his new album project, 'From All Angles.' It features collabs with old Yard playmate Jinx, among others. Jump on these downloads like the proverbial hot cakes they are: devour them. This is a wicked collection of beats and rhymes from an intelligent, street-smart emcee who has been a vital part of the Scottish hip-hop scene since its inception.

Diggin' In The Crates by Profisee

p.WRECKS & K. CLIFTON aka QUIZ

p.WRECKS and K. Clifton (aka Quiz) are two rappers hailing from Spokane, Washington. I first came across them via producer BL▲CK CEILING, who has done some tracks with Quiz. Since then I've followed both rappers, each of whom are incredibly prolific. Another thing they have in common is a multi-syllabic, polyrhythmic flow, and a tendency to dwell on the dark side of life. They're both fantastic rappers and producers in their own right, but when they collaborate (often with producer Xrin Arms), the results are stratospherically awesome. I don't know what they put in the water down in Spokane, but from where I'm sitting it seems like they have an incredibly diverse and high-concept underground hip-hop scene. These guys are the ones to watch: I hope this post leads you to more of their brilliant solo works.

Old Signs in Flesh feat. Quiz produced by the chukchee by p.WRECKS

Dry Heaving feat. GuttahFace, K.Clifton, Xrin Arms by p.WRECKS

different thoughts feat. FatArm, K.Clifton, Xrin Arms by p.WRECKS

FURTHER LISTENING (ALBUMS):

p.WRECKS - There Is Nothing... Whatever

La Propagandue Asiatique presents Quiz aka K. Clifton - And Then The Cause Was Broke

Xrin Arms - Human Hallucinogen 


- post by Texture

Whatever happened to Hip-House?

Sometimes I think hip-house is the best genre ever known to man - the perfect blend of old school dance sounds with rapping on the top. It was fast, it was funky and it was fun - the tempo of the music made the MCs concentrate on a different meter, one that was more rhythmic and inspirational rather than heavy and polemical. Both genres were new and exciting at the time, and fitted each other like a hand in a glove (lest we forget that house music originally started as a black, ghetto music too).

How could it fail? WHY did it fail? Was it something to do with a perception amongst the hip-hop communtiy that house was too gay? The fact that house came from gay clubs like Frankie Knuckles' Warehouse or Ron Hardy's Music Box perhaps didn't square well with the uber-macho posturing of rap. Or was it seen as too faddish? Perhaps a hangover from the "disco sucks" years and rejection of yet another hijacking of a black musical form by white folks?

Whatever the reasons, the music still kicks ass today - drop something like Tyree & Kool Rock Steady "Turn Up The Bass" or KC Flightt's "Planet E" on a modern dancfloor and watch them tear it up. Now that we have gotten past an era where hip-hop was alligned in direct opposition to house, where all these different sounds are now simply conceived of as "retro", younger crowds are more open to this music and respond to the upbeat, party vibe and the combination of simple key elements in a fresh, different style.

Here's a short documentary on hip-house from 1989 featuring pretty much all the key players in the game. Some comissioning editor somewhere obviously thought this genre was gonna break big! But you've gotta be glad that footage like this still exists to document a sadly forgotten scene:



BONUS!

Here's a clip of Fast Eddie performing "Yo Yo Get Funky" live for a super-square and uber-white show called "Nine Thirty" (this clip also features an interview with the legendary founder of DJ International Records Rocky Jones, sporting a bad-ass shellsuit):

George Fitzgerald - Silhouette EP

George Fitzgerald - Silhouette EP (Aus Music)

George Fitzgerald follows up his fantastic work for Hot Flush with a 3-track EP for the equally awesome Aus Music, who've gone from being a solid house/ techno label, to putting out some of the best cross-genre records in less than two years; Carl Craig remixing Ramadanman & Appleblim, Ramadanman and Midland's collab, Joy F'n Orbison.

Fitzgerald's pushed a lot of the right people's buttons with his mix of R'n'B, house and dubstep, and I was about to criticise this one for being overly-predictable, decent enough garage. Until I released my promo copy's been mislabelled. The B-side Reset (which I had as the flagship track) is a rolling, off-time garagey/r'n'b number that takes its time working over a single vocal line and offbeat piano stabs. It's pretty decent, but doesn't even come close the crossover potential of The Let Down, and frankly, the vocal's fucking irritating. Equally, the remix of Silhouette, by John Roberts, is this loping, weirdly played purple wow/ hip-hop number that doesn't know if it's trying to be smart electronica or a quality banger and had me ready to pan the release as a missed opportunity.

Then we get to Silhouette.

Holy Shit. Big analogue synth line warping through delays, epic smashes of white noise and irresistibly funky percussive riffs; big tune. Building up over time, it eventually bursts into a lush, drawn out slice of techno, with a looped and chopped vocal acting to drag the tune to new heights. Then, with the briefest of drop-outs, a monster sub-bass line kicks in and it all gets messy, turning it into one of the best tunes I've heard for months. This one's going to be big; I did find myself wondering why such a magnificent piece of work was consigned to the B-side. Buy it.

Stagga - The Warm Air Room

Stagga - The Warm Air Room (Rag and Bone)

Following on from his singles on Rag and Bone and Rudeez, Stagga drops his debut album, The Warm Air Room, fusing violently nasty basslines to subtle hip-hop frameworks, and chanelling it all into a doomy, dread-fuelled warehouse sound. Whilst Face Get Splat and Sick as Sin were rooted squarely in the kind of full-on dubstep-mutant-bassline territory that Rag and Bone have made their own, The Warm Air Room displays a surprising amount of subtlety and delicacy of touch, without in any way sacrificing heaviness; following the Zomby-esque bleepy intro, Is This The Future rolls in bouncing hip-hop boom-bap, complete with G-funk strings and as detuned sample of U-God's famous "Roll like cocaine, straight from Bolivia" on the breaks. The Dragon heads more for a UK funky feel, with the monstrous bass-drone offsetting rattling tabla percussion and slightly surreal manga-esque quotes about summoning dragons. Even the pixel-driven psychedelia of Zomby and Rustie rears its head, on the likes of The Chilski and Original Misty, both featuring many-time collaborator Monky and skillfully bridging the divide between hip-hop and purple wow.

Neatly fusing the major strands of UK bass music, and creating a few anthems in the process, The Warm Air Room is an accomplished album from an artist who risked just plastering big basslines over everything and riding the Ket-massive all the way to the bank in his first few singles.

Jackmaster - Fabric 57

The hypometer just burst....

The details of Jackmaster's Fabric mix have finally landed, and it's a seething clusterfuck of detroit electro, house, disco, dubstep and 80s screamers guaranteed to get absolutely caned in the upcoming months. I've only listened to the promo stream twice, but it really is everything you'd expect from the Numbers mainstay - whilst Shackleton's Fabric live mix was introspective head music, Jack turns in an unashamedly party-centric mix, cutting fast and furious through guaranteed movers like Inner City's Big Fun, Vamp's Outlander, and DJ Funk's Pussyride. Fabric's mixes have always been a good indicator of what's happening in the dance music world, and Jack's mix should come as no surprise following Numbers' rapidly rising popularity over the past couple of years. For all the hype and hipness surrounding Numbers, people seem to forget that the boy absolutely kills it in the booth - Fabric 57 is a damn fine mix that ought to solidify Jack's status as a major international player.

The launch party's on the 13th May, with Jack, Rustie, SBTRKT live and more, or for those not interested in schlepping to Farringdon for the night, you can find Jack playing pretty much every weekend in and about Glasgow. Get down.

01. The Fantastic Aleems - Release Yourself

02. Inner City - Big Fun (Magic Juan Remix)

03. Gregor Salto - Classic Beat Tool

04. Model 500 - Night Drive (Thru-Babylon)

05. Kim English - Nite Life (Retail Club Mix)

06. Anthony Shakir - Plugged In

07. Martyn - Alldayallnight

08. Geiom feat. Terrible Shock - 2 4 6

09. Doug Willis - Dougswana (Audiowhores Beats)

10. Jook 10 - Emotions

11. Larry Heard presents Mr. White - The Sun Can't Compare

12. Addison Groove - Make Um Bounce

13. SBTRKT & Sinden - Seekwal

14. Splack Pack - Shake That Ass Bitch

15. Mad Mike featuring Davina - Don't You Want It

16. Sia - Little Man (Wookie Remix)

17. CLS - Can You Feel It? (In House Dub)

18. DJ Deeon - The Freaks

19. The Outlander - Vamp

20. Splack Pack - Scrub Da Ground

21. Underground Resistance - Jupiter Jazz

22. Thomas Bangalter - What To Do

23. Fix - Flash

24. Hudson Mohawke - Fuse

25. Machinedrum - La Bomba

26. DJ Funk - Pussy Ride

27. AFX - VBS.Redlof.B

28. Skepta - Doin' It Again

29. Radiohead - Idioteque

Chemical Poets - Twenty Tentacle from Chemical Poets on Vimeo.

The Chemical Poets doing that voodoo that they do so well. Fuck yes with bells on.

Kanye West "Power": Illuminati Overkill

So, have you sen the video for Kanye West's "Power"? And did you notice all the occult symbolism there-in? Come on, let's be honest here - you'd have to be a total fucking idiot not to.

I have commented on this kind of thing before (most notably Lady Gaga), but if you are new to the modern trend to read everything in pop music as being controlled by the Illuminati, then start here with a brilliant piece by the Fortean Times. Of course, written as it was about 12 months ago, it already seems out of date as it doesn't feature Kanye. But I'll come clean on all this "conspiranoia" fascination - I'm sick of it. I'm over it all. And why? Because the tables have turned - this is no longer about an audience reclaiming popular culture with fresh and bizarre readings. Now it's nothing more than a clever marketing gimmick. Conspiracists, KANYE IS TROLLING YOU.

First of all, let me clarify - I do not believe that there is an Illuminati conspiracy to rule the world. I do believe there are elite organisations/groups of indiviuals who hold certain reigns of global power and will do anything to retain them - legal or illegal, covert or overt. However, I do not believe in a singular secret organisation that brainwashes children through the use of MK Ultra/monarch butterflies/Hello Kitty dolls/ancient Egyptian religious figures/sex abuse. Yes, I am pretty sure that the sexual abuse of children happens, and sometimes in a secretive and organised fashion, but I don't believe that those genuinely horrific acts are perpetrated by a solitary shadowy organisation, with the intent of keeping the general population under a mind control regime. And why not? Because it is JUST TOO NEAT. It doesn't take into account enough the age old human capacity to be rubbish (those theorists will tell you it's because the Illuminati are NOT HUMAN), for things not to go to plan, for mistakes to happen.

It just reads too much like the plot of Scooby Doo. "Mr Illuminati burnt down the old funfair!" But this drive towards narrative is understanable. All our senses are bombarded by narrative-based media wherever we turn. All religions are based on stories passed down from old to young. History is played out like a drama with a beginning, middle and end. Even the simple act of brushing your teeth nowadays has to have an "arc". This is what makes conspiracy theories so attractive - they take genuine fears about troubling aspects of the world we live in, and mould them to fit a very straight forward story with an easy good/bad dichotomy at its center. Whether you worship Jesus or Oprah, it doesn't really matter - they are both sold on their stories, so why shouldn't the real world be too?

Initially I was drawn to these story-telling aspects of pop conspiranoia, the wild correlations people would draw between disparate pieces of information drip fed to us by the media. Personally I feel like conspiranoia has replaced horror films in my life for creepy thrills. However, it quickly became boring once you realised that the message of nearly all these sites/videos is the same. BELIEVE IN JEEBUS! And not in a personal/spiritual/empowering sense, but rather in the most crassly traditional sense: "Don't ask questions - just believe. Pray to God to make it stop!". It seems it's too much to ask of the fundamentally religious that they could apply the same critical thinking to their own cherished belief system as they do to a pop video.

And this is where the trouble starts - though on the surface they seem to be very knowledgable about pop culture, these sites and YouTube posters are actually ignorant of the way the modern world works. According to them, there can only be two meanings for every action. One, the surface level meaning that the "sheeple" can understand (Gaga leaves prison with her foxy femme pal and enacts a glossy, sexy revenge in a world of B-movies and product placmeent) and the other what it REALLY means (Gaga is a puppet enslaving a generation of brainwashed minds into homosexuality through the use of ancient Egyptian symbols). There can be no other meaning or no other valid reading. Remember: politics, sociology, anthropology and economics are merely tools of the elite. Ambiguity, reflexivity, irony - conspiranoia does not trade in these. And that's the REAL irony - conspiranoists ask us to see beyond the surface meaning but only to agree with their meanings - not to find meanings of our own, to find a third/fourth/fifth/6.5 billionth meaning.

As with conspiracy culture in general, pop conspiranoia has turned into a huge global meme, yet people are still convinced that they are discovering this hidden knowledge for themselves, and they and they alone know what it all means. Mass media events like The Matrix and The Da Vinci Code are huge global smash hits, and are regularly offered up as fonts of proof of the worldwide conspiracy, yet even your nan has seen them by now. It's quite a feat really, when you think about it. Most advertisers would kill to be able to create products a third of the world can own but that retain the cachet of being "secret". It's also the most truly scary aspect of all this - when the powerful majority believes that they are the oppressed minority. Where have we seen that before?

So, back to "Power". To the conspiranoists, the only reason Kanye can be using this type of symbolism is because his Illuminati puppet masters told him he must make his Masonic initiation rites public, to taunt the select few viewers who knows what it really means. It's got nothing to do with a desire for more notoriety by the record label, it's got nothing to do with a PR department wanting to drum up some publicity for their latest product. It's got nothing to do with the legions of staff who work for Kanye or his label seeing an article and mentioning it to him, it's got nothing to do with an artist having self-knowledge and commenting on how the world sees them. Because, that's not what artists do, is it? No, they just sing silly songs. They are not normal people who on occassion have reason to cruise the internets, to search their own names on Google, to email pictures of their bits to strangers in an attempt to get laid. They're just pop artists - they wouldn't deliberately troll you. Would they?

I would expect an article like this to get a raft of comments from people accusing me of being "one of them" (the Illuminati and/or the Masons), if I actually thought anyone was reading. For handy reference I will refer to those people as "black sheeple". They have realised that they do not have to follow the herd as they once did - however, they mistakenly believe that to move directly against the herd is the only option they have. Like Neo they have been woken out of consensus reality, but they have yet to realise that the "netherworld" they have woken into is itself a consensus reality that can be woken out of. That is THE great failing of the Matrix film sequence and why I hate them so much - Neo awakes to find himself a super-being not on the set of "Holy Mountain" or "2001: A Space Oddessy", but rather in "Terminator Fucking 3".

To those black sheeple I would like to say don't comment until you read "The Illuminatus Trilogy". Or even better "The Invisibles" - it has pictures.

Further reading:
Fortean Times: The Illuminati X-Factor.
Technocult - The Conspiratainment Complex and Why I Don’t Find Conspiracy Theory Funny Anymore
Bossip: Kanye West New Allegiance To Illuminati Exposed?
Vigilant Citizen: Kanye West’s “Power”: The Occult Meaning of its Symbols
Result of Google search with keywords "Kanye","Illuminati" and "Power"

Elemental - Fighting Trousers Video

File under; stupidly entertaining.
Elemental's free EP the Indifference Engine can be found on his new site.

Check the site for tour dates if you're in the South...

Gutter Riddim Halloween special ft GATR, Loki, Wee Rab & Gasp Physiks

Glasgow in the house! Check this wicked edition of GATR (aka Jinty)'s "Gutter Riddim" show on Subcity radio featuring some of Clydeside's best MCs gettin all spooooky on yer arse:
http://www.subcity.org/shows/gutterriddim/7c072/

Free download - Sacre Noir

Apocalyptic Goblin of Doom ™ Harlequinade (Church of When the Shit Hits the Fan / Neverzone) just noised us up about some free music courtesy of INeedMusik.com - remixes of Edinburgh artist Sacre Noir, whose debut album is available through Savage Records / Dejine Rec now. With hints of 90's trip-hop and breakbeat, alt-pop and gothic melodies, it's a unique and dark combination. The remix EP features the best of Edinburgh's hip/trip-hop scene and can be found over here.

Direct downloads below.

1. For Herself - (UV Beats vs Sacre Noir)

2. Visible Ink - (Xiangxing vs Sacre Noir)

3. Chimneys - (HQ vs Sacre Noir)

4. End of the Decay - Eric Stone vs Sacre Noir

5. Visible Ink - (Savage Sound System vs Sacre Noir)

6. For Herself - (Sonaar vs Sacre Noir)

Free Asthmatic Astronaut

I have to bail, sorry by ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT
Ben from Tokamak was hanging out with DJ AA when gigging through in Edinburgh last weekend, and the lovely chap has picked up a copy of Super Intelligent Common Sense for me to check out. Stupid bugger went and forgot it though, so I'm waiting on hearing the full version. For now, here's some freebie Double-A for you to get your ears round.

Twin Lizard v.4 - Silent Britain

Twin Lizard V.4 - Silent Britain EP
Combining two of my favourite things, hip-hop and net audio, Twin Lizard have been honing their craft and reinventing themselves for more than a decade, emerging as an ever-changing and angrily political hydra-headed beast. Their current incarnation takes the leftfield UK style of Braintax, Mud Fam, Lowlife et al and splices it with hefty guitars, and to-the-point boom-bap. It's not reinventing the wheel or heralding a new dawn for MCing, but Twin Lizard spit intelligent and witty flows over faultless beats... Awesome.

I've always thought Braintax's most enduring line was "it's one for the treble, two for the floor, I'm Yorkshire to the bone, I don't copy New York", because it's a perfect statement of intent - a self-declaration that beats any big dick / car / gun bragging hands down. Twin Lizard do showboat, especially on opening track Statement of Intent, with Canadian counterpoint Daddy Lizard spitting that he's "decapitating hip-hop heads who don't believe / resuscitating breathless spirits who don't grieve / you motherfucking ringtone rappers need to leave", but for the most part, any braggadocios flows are handled with humour and intelligence.

Like Lowlife's crew, TL spit in Lincoln accents about British subject matter and British politics, raging about the failings of British government on polemics like Introducing... Citizen Tat and Single Motherland. It's fiery, tight and maturely observed hip-hop that manages to suck you up into the production without losing sight of the message, or lapsing into pure linguistic trickery. This is some of the most impressive UK hip-hop I've heard in a while.

Download it Here

Free Riz MC

I have to admit, I'd never heard of Riz MC, one of the central actors in Chris Morris' awesome Four Lions before now, but the fact that he's dared to take on a tune as anthemic as Chase and Status' Eastern Jam marks him as a fairly bold MC. That he does so with a full brass band and comes up winner means I'll definitely be keeping an eye on him in the future. We've kindly been given permission to distribute it for free - dig it.
Riz MC's debut single - Hundreds and Thousands is out now, and his debut album will be out in September.
Download it here